Today's layoffs

Posted at 1:27 PM on January 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

I read in the newspaper a few weeks ago that the worst day to lay someone off is Friday, because the person has two days before they can do anything about it. Not everyone read that, apparently, for it was a hefty day in the layoff-notice printing business.

Here are today's

Andersen Windows -- Bayport. 160 more employees have been laid off through the first quarter of the year. That's in addition to 450 who were laid off at the company earlier this month.

Hutchinson Technology - Its Sioux Falls plant is being closed and 300 current employees are being turned out. The company announced in December it planned to cut over 1,100 people.

Polaris - Medina. The company is cutting 460 jobs.

Recognizing that some of these jobs are in South Dakota, the total number of employees laid off today is almost 10 percent of the number of people who were laid off in Minnesota in the entire month of December.

All of these cuts are because of lower consumer -- and company -- demand for the products being made. One wonders how this spiral can ever end since increasing layoffs increases the number of people who can't buy products, which leads to more layoffs, which leads to...

---

Comments (9)

pssssst....Bob, it's Andersen. Don't mean to be picky, but well, I'm picky.

Posted by Bonnie | January 23, 2009 2:10 PM

---

It's the ultimate death spiral. It's going to take companies who are willing to sacrifice their bottom line (and actually spend some of the millions of dollars stashed under the proverbial mattress) to pull the economy out of this increasingly dark funk. However, there has to be some sort of bottom otherwise even the most dependable profit centers - oil - will begin to cut workers and when that happens, it's truly the end.

Posted by Sornie | January 23, 2009 2:14 PM

---

Right you are, of course, Bonnie. Fixed. Thanks for the catch. Let's keep it to ourselves.

Posted by Bob Collins | January 23, 2009 2:30 PM

---

Ammendment request to "Today's Layoffs":
It would be helpful to see a tally or "To Date Layoffs" since last quarter 08. (you could use little more to do, right?)
I'll bet you have the info already. Trends and business sector information could be reviewed.

And, for the group of us looking for jobs it would guide the search. Thanks!

Posted by sue anderson | January 23, 2009 2:50 PM

---

"It's the ultimate death spiral. It's going to take companies who are willing to sacrifice their bottom line ... to pull the economy out of this increasingly dark funk."

That's the theory behind the fed stimulus. Father Keynes says that, when the free market won't spend money the gov't has to step in and spend money until the market recovers.

In other words, it will be you, me and future taxpayers who sacrifice our bottom lines in order to pull the economy out of this increasingly dark funk.

Posted by bsimon | January 23, 2009 2:59 PM

---

"..and actually spend some of the millions of dollars stashed under the proverbial mattress) to pull the economy out of this increasingly dark funk

There is no money stashed under the mattress. The business models of the 90s and early 21st century are debt based, not revenue based. That's why the credit crunch is wiping everyone out. It didn't have to be this way, there were those who warned us... but there you have it. Meanwhile executive bonuses are still rolling out more or less on schedule.

Posted by Paul | January 23, 2009 4:36 PM

---

The other aspect of this are the corporations -- Microsoft, for example -- who made profits ... just not record profits. And so they laid off thousands.

It's not enough to make money. You have to make piles of money to keep your stock price up.

Posted by Bob Collins | January 23, 2009 4:47 PM

---

3M's the same way. It's about growth. Not just piles of money but bigger piles than last year to keep the stock going up. I'm not blaming 3M. It's our economic system and it does seem to be a house of cards.

Posted by Al | January 24, 2009 7:16 AM

---

Referring to Al's house of cards; this process of organizing an economy around investors has been called financialization by Kevin Phillips. He points to three examples history- Spain, the Netherlands, and England. It ended badly for all of them. He discusses this in his book "Wealth and Democracy". Although the book contains a lot of enlightening information, I have a difficult time recommending it because it's actually a difficult read. It's a check out of the library and skim kind of book.

Posted by Paul | January 25, 2009 9:45 AM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor